Can you tell me a bit about your background and how you started your career?
As the daughter and granddaughter of a cellar master, I am the fifth generation of the family to be involved in wine. Working in the world of wine was always a real vocation from when I was young. Having grown up in the area of Saint Emilion, I first obtained an agricultural engineering degree, which I then added to with a degree from the Faculty of Oenology in Bordeaux.  I did several periods of work experience in France (Château Haut-Brion, Pétrus, Latour…) and in California. Subsequently, I wanted to work in my favourite region, Bordeaux’s Right Bank. After a year in Pomerol, I came to work at Château Quintus – that was 10 years ago – in order to deal with setting up environmental procedures. Rapidly, Château Quintus gave me the opportunity to advance to the position of vineyard manager, and then last year, to estate manager.

What are the most important skills for a wine manager to possess?
Resilience is one of the most important qualities. Being able to reconsider your work and change your habitual methods is essential. On a day-to-day basis, we are dependent upon the composition of a terroir and, in particular, upon weather conditions. This also applies to management. We should not forget that behind the identity of a wine, there is a whole team, and uniting a team is fundamental.

Working in a male-dominated industry, what challenges have you faced in your career and how have you overcome them?
What is most difficult for a woman is being assertive, without upsetting anyone. It is often said that a man has charisma, whereas a woman has character. But the situation is changing, there are an increasing number of women working in winegrowing and that’s very positive.  At Quintus, we have almost 60 per cent of women in our team.

What advice would you give specifically to women entering the winemaking industry?
Here is a piece of advice I would give: prove you have the skills.  A woman is often more precise, more meticulous; you have to persevere… Know how to bounce back and learn from your mistakes.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
In winegrowing, it takes time to see the changes in the development of quality of the wines. This is perhaps one of the most difficult points for me. Maybe the best piece of advice I was given is to have patience. I learn how to be patient every day.

What are some positive changes you think should be celebrated and what areas still need more work within the wine-making industry?
Thankfully, the days when it was said that women made wine in the cellar “turn sour” are long gone. The world of wine has evolved a great deal. More and more women have access to positions of responsibility. Knowledge passed on from one generation to the next is a facet in wine that functions well and that’s very important. Innovation in the world of wine still has progress to make. Winegrowing, when compared with other agricultural productions, still lags behind.

What’s the biggest misconception about women in the wine industry?
It’s easy for women to be pigeonholed automatically as working in the administrative part of the wine estate, rather than potentially working in vine growing or in winemaking. Generally, in this domain, the most common misconception is to believe that our role in winegrowing is limited to tasting the wine. First and foremost, wine is made in the vineyard. It is essential to produce grapes of quality, as the winemaker cannot replace the terroir. It is important to taste your wines, particularly at harvest time, but the full extent of the profession involves far more than just tasting.

What led you to become the manager of Château Quintus?
The taste for a challenge and the determination to raise Château Quintus to the highest level. These the are the key issues that drive us at Quintus. This is an incredible source of motivation. The expansion of the property is a real opportunity for someone in her 30s. There’s never a dull moment.

What were the first changes you initiated at Château Quintus?
Implementing new environmental methods was one of my first tasks at Quintus in 2014.  Ten years later, we have dual environmental certification (ISO 14001 and HEV, as part of the collective framework of the EMS – Environmental Management System for Bordeaux Wines), of which we are very proud and this helps us from day to day in managing the vineyard, vat house and cellar. On this subject, many factors have changed: vine growing methods, waste management, protection of biodiversity, energy saving, etc.

What are you most proud of from your time so far at Château Quintus?
The thing I’m proudest of is my team. Their commitment and motivation are always boundless.

Is there a vintage you have become particularly attached to during the last 10 years at Château Quintus? If so, why?
I am deeply attached to 2021, not only because it is the year in which my son was born, but also because it was undoubtedly one of the hardest of the past 10 years. Difficult vintages are often those that possess incredible ageing potential. I am convinced that 2021 will surprise us!

How would you describe your work/life balance?
My work is extremely varied and that is what makes it so interesting. I go easily from managing the teams, to making technical decisions, to seeing to administrative matters, as well as dealing with issues of quality control and environmental protection. From day to day, I constantly try to balance my personal and professional life, but it is not always easy to achieve this equilibrium. It really is a balancing act. The most important thing is to devote time to both. Not neglecting one’s personal life is the key to being able to gain in efficiency. For 10 years, I devoted a lot of time to winegrowing, but becoming a mother now obliges me to rebalance everything as a whole. Discussions about winegrowing often crop up, even so.

If we were to take a dive into your personal wine collection, what would we find?
Naturally, a lot of wines from the Right Bank.

What is your next goal?
My next goal is to raise the amazing terroir recently acquired during the expansion of Quintus to the highest level. Our soil survey, currently in progress, (45 pits), reveals an unbelievable terroir. It is up to us to highlight it.